DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 10:56 p.m. June 16, 2009
MARTA riders speak out on fare hike, service cuts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Complaints, begging and even praise filled the air at Atlanta City Hall on Tuesday night, as MARTA passengers took one of their last chances to speak out on proposed fare hikes and service cuts.
More than 100 attendees listened calmly as Walter Jones, MARTA’s budget office director, said the agency was “facing a severe and sustained financial crisis.” Then, with $2 fares, higher parking fees and less frequent service on the table, audience members rose to speak.
Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com
Francine English, left, Stone Mountain, questions Walter Jones, MARTA director office of management & budget, about mobility service at information tables setup outside the MARTA hearings on fare hikes and service cuts at Atlanta City Hall, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.
Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com
Atlanta - MARTA employees Spencer Stoleson, left, manager of service planning and scheduling, and scheduler Johnathan Terrell discuss the relationship between current service and proposed bus route service with patrons at information tables outside the MARTA hearings on fare hikes and service cuts at Atlanta City Hall.
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- Topic: Atlanta transportation
One by one, a parade of 62 riders criticized and praised MARTA service, and pleaded for their own routes to be spared.
“How am I going to get home?” asked Sheila Jeffrey, 24, who sits in a wheelchair and needs a connecting bus that she has learned is about to be cut. “You all are cutting my route.”
Student Samantha Boyce, 39, lambasted the behavior of MARTA’s employees and said it should address that “before going on a slashing spree with its routes.”
Another rider praised MARTA service. But the slight cutback in rail service, ending it at midnight, seemed aimed at just the train she hurries to catch when she gets off work late at night from the Atlanta Detention Center.
“I don’t have any problems paying the extra money,” that rider, Sonia Rossman, said afterward. “I just need the service.”
The meeting was one of four scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday. This week, the transit agency is holding the final public hearings, which are mandated, before the MARTA board votes Monday. It will accept written comments until Thursday.
MARTA board Chairman Michael Walls said afterward that it was “kind of sobering” to hear how the service cuts would make it harder for people to get to jobs, school and doctor’s appointments.
“That’s the last thing we want to do,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t see where we’re going to find a magic bullet in the next week to allow us to make any great changes.”
Jones said the rate hike is overdue, and there’s no getting around the financial facts — from a decline in sales tax revenues to lower gas prices luring drivers back to cars.
All in all, MARTA officials estimated they had a $109.8 million hole to fill.
The cuts will only take care of this year’s shortfall, and MARTA is likely to have worse problems next year. Walls said he understood that riders were frustrated, and he felt his own frustration that the agency didn’t have the funding it needed “to give this community the service it deserves.”
